CHAP. might arm them against his authority, or render necessary a return to more equitable measures. L. 1807. 11. Orders in Nov. 11. Under the influence of these ideas, the celebrated Orders in Council of 11th November 1807 were issued, which, on Council of the preamble of the British Islands having been declared by the Berlin decree in a state of blockade, and of all importation of British merchandise having been absolutely prohibited, and of the mitigated measure of retaliation, adopted in the Order in Council of 7th January 1807, having proved inadequate to the object of effecting the repeal of that unprecedented system of warfare, declared that from henceforth "all the ports and places of France and her allies, from which, though not at war with his Majesty, the British flag is excluded, shall be subject to the same restrictions, in respect of trade and navigation, as if the same were actually blockaded in the most strict and rigorous manner; and that all trade in articles the produce or manufacture of the said countries or colonies, shall be deemed to be unlawful, and all such articles declared good prize; declaring always that nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to capture or detention of any vessel or cargo which shall belong to a country not declared by this order subject to a strict blockade, which shall have cleared out with such cargo from such port to which she belongs, either in Europe or America, or from some free port in the British colonies, under circumstances in which such trade from such free port is permitted, direct to some port or place in the colonies of his Majesty's enemies, or from those colonies direct to the countries to which such vessel belongs, or to some free port in his Majesty's colonies; nor to any vessel or cargo belonging to a country not at war with his Majesty, which shall have cleared out from some port in this kingdom, and shall be proceeding direct to the port specified in her clearance; nor to any vessel or cargo belonging to any country not at war with his Majesty, which shall be coming from any port or place in Europe L. 1807. declared by this order to be subject to a strict blockade, CHAP. destined to some port or place in Europe belonging to his Majesty, and be on her voyage direct thereto." All vessels contravening this order are declared good prize. "And whereas countries not engaged in the war have acquiesced in the orders of France, and have given countenance and effect to these prohibitions, by obtaining from agents of the enemy certain documents styled 'certificates of origin,' therefore if any vessel, after having had reasonable time to receive notification of the present order, shall be found carrying any such certificate, it shall be declared good prize, together with the goods on x. 134, 138. board."1* 1 Parl. Deb. 12. these Or Divested of the technical phraseology in which, for the sake of legal precision, these orders are couched, they in Import of effect amount to this: Napoleon had declared the British ders. Islands in a state of blockade, and subjected all goods of British produce or manufacture to confiscation within his dominions, or those of the countries subjected to his control, and prohibited from entering any harbour all vessels which had touched at any British port; and the English government, in reply, proclaimed France and all the Continental states in a state of blockade, and declared all vessels good prize which should be bound for any of their harbours, excepting such as had previously cleared out from, or touched at, a British harbour. Thus France prohibited all commerce with England, or traffic in English goods, and England prohibited all commerce between any of the states which had embraced the Continental System and each other, unless in vessels bound for some British harbour. "Orders in * By a supplementary Order in Council, the severe enactments of this regulation were declared not to extend to "articles of the produce and manufac- Additional tures of the blockaded countries which shall be laden on board British ships;" Council, and by a more material one, issued six weeks afterwards, it was provided, Nov. 25, "that nothing in the order of 11th November shall be construed so as to 1807. and permit any vessel to import any produce or manufactures of the enemy's 2 Parl. Deb. colonies in the West Indies, direct from such colonies to any port in the British x. 148. dominions." Dec. 18, 1807. CHAP. L. 1807. 13. Milan De cree, Dec. Napoleon was not slow in replying to these menacing measures. By a decree dated from Milan on 17th December 1807, he declared-" 1. That every vessel, of whatever nation, which shall have submitted to be searched 17, 1807, by British cruisers, or paid any impost levied by the Napoleon. English government, shall be considered as having lost the privileges of a neutral flag, and be regarded and dealt with as an English vessel.-2. Being so considered, they shall be declared good prize.-3. The British Islands are declared in a state of blockade. Every vessel, of whatever nation, and with whatever cargo, coming from any British harbour, or from any of the English colonies, or from any country occupied by the English troops, or bound for England, or for the English colonies, or for any country occupied by the English troops, is declared good prize.-4. These rigorous measures shall cease in regard to any nations which shall have caused the English government to respect the rights of their flag, but continue in regard to all others, and never be released till Great Britain shows a disposition to return to the law of nations as well as those of justice and honour." It may safely be affirmed, that the rage of belligerent powers, and the mutual violation of the law of nations, could not go beyond these furious manifestoes. They produced, as 1 Mart. Sup. might have been expected, most important effects, both i. 452, 453. Ann. Reg. State Pa gave on the Continent and in the British Isles, and rise to 1807, p.779. memorable and luminous debates in parliament, in which pers. all that could be advanced, both for and against the 374, 375. justice and expedience of these measures, was fully brought forward.1 Thiers, viii. 14. the Orders On the one hand, it was strongly urged by Lord GrenArguments ville, Lord Howick, and Lord Erskine-"Let the case at in parliament against once be stated in the manner which has produced the whole controversy. France, on 21st November, issued her decree, which announced the intention to distress this country in a way unauthorised by the public law, subjecting to confiscation the ships and cargoes of neutrals in Council. L. 1807. with British merchandise, or going to, or coming from CHAP. Great Britain, with their accustomed trade. Such a decree undoubtedly introduced a rule which the law of nations forbids, as being, even as between belligerents, and much more as with neutrals, an aggravation of the miseries of war, and unauthorised by the practice of civilised states. If carried into execution, it would vest the suffering belligerent with the right of retaliation ; and indeed, as between the belligerents only, it may be admitted that the mere publication of such a decree would authorise the nation so offended to disregard the law of nations towards the nation so offending. But that is not the present question; the point here is, not whether we would have been justified in retaliating upon France the injury she has inflicted upon us, but whether we are justified in inflicting, in our turn, a new and still more aggravated species of injury on neutral states. If A strikes me, I may retaliate by striking him, and neither law nor reason will weigh very nicely the comparative severity of the blow given from that at first received. But it is a new application of the term retaliation, to say, that if A strikes me, I may retaliate by striking B. If the interdiction of a neutral from trading with us is submitted to by him from favour to the belligerent, he directly interposes in the war, and his character of a neutral is at an end; if he does so from terror or weakness, in that case too he ceases to be a neutral, because he suffers an unjust pressure to be affixed upon us. But, admitting that, the question remains, what right have we to retaliate upon a neutral upon whom the decree has never been executed-who in no shape has been made either the instrument or the victim of oppression by the enemy? 15. Now that is the real question, and the only question here. America, the only great maritime power which Special inhas not now taken a decided part in the contest, was ed by them jury inflictvirtually excluded from its operation. The air was white on America. with her sails; the sea was pressed down with her ship L. 1807. CHAP. ping, nearly half as numerous as our own, bringing her produce into every port of England, and carrying our commodities and manufactures into every corner of Europe. Up to the date of the Orders in Council, she continued to take, without the least defalcation, ten millions of our manufactures, and she carried to other nations what was beyond her own consumption. She carried on this traffic, in the face of the French decree of 21st November, when we could not have done it for ourselves. She did this, it is true, from no feeling of friendship towards us, but from regard to her own interests; but Providence has so arranged human affairs, that, by a wise pursuit of self-interest, the general interests of mankind are advanced. We had so much the start of other nations that we had only to lie by, and they, for their own purposes, came to our relief. America smuggled our goods into France for her own interest, and France bought them for hers. The people cheered the Emperor at the Tuileries every day, but they broke his laws every night. The Berlin decree, in fact, had become a dead letter, either from the connivance, or licenses for contraband trade issued by the French government; she had no ships to carry her decrees into effect; and the barbarous system of the enemy was rapidly falling into that neglect in which Mr Pitt, with great sagacity, left the corresponding decree of the Directory in 1798. 16. ral injustice. "Such was the state of matters, when in an evil hour Their gene- our own government interfered, and gave a helping hand to the enemy. The Orders in Council were the real executors of the Berlin decree. Under them we employ our own shipping to stop our own trade upon the sea ; we make prisons of our own ports to terrify away the neutral seamen, who otherwise would carry on our traffic, and find a vent for our manufactures; and play the very game of France, by throwing neutral powers into her arms instead of our own. And this, it seems, is retalia |